Wednesday, April 29, 2009

I have been busy clipping coupons. I got a whole bunch of coupons that need to be clipped and organized. I also had my first pack night last night. I think the boys had fun. They always have fun. I'm having den meeting today beacause I won't be here next week and we basically don't have den meeting during the summer. Then Summer came to me and said, "Mom, look at my teeth." When she got her braces her two, next to the 2 front teeth on the bottom, weren't in yet. Well, 2 weeks ago, the Dr. put brackets on those two teeth (they were very far back, and wah-lah they have moved right into place. It's just amazing how much straighter her smile is. There is even room for the top 2 beside the front teeth to come in. They aren't there yet though. I'm getting excited for my sister reunion. I have also been busy with trek stuff. Only about a month left for that whole thing, then it's on to Day Camp for the cubs.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Well, Ms. Resourcefulness herself, Maria, my good friend told me she found a great sight to get REDBOX FREE every day!! Can you stand it!! Rough getting stuff for FREE! Click here to get a new code everyday! You will have to scroll down a bit and you will see things like "Sign up now" but you don't have to sign up just keep scrolling down until you see REDBOX CODES. Hope it works for everyone. THANK YOU MARCI for teaching me how to do the link thing, makes me look really smart and thanks Maria!! For the great info!!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dear Ward Members,After the Bp spoke to us on Sunday, we realized that many of you might have ?'s about the trek. Here is the website where we will be staying. http://www.handcarttreks.com/BingCanyon/BingCanyonindex.html There is info about the restroom facilities, water facilities and the area in general (port a potties and a water tank are provided by the staff at Bing Canyon).As a WARD we are required to bring our own:

FOODLEADERSHIPITINERARYMEDICAL STAFF

As an Activities Comm we have already taken care of all of these areas.

Medical staff includes Hyrum Jones and Eric Koehn. Bro Jones has generously offered his camper as a medical station as needs be.

We have a food comm chair-Dorothy Eppich, who is currently planning the menu which includes MEALS FOR EVERYONE, SNACKS ON THE TRAIL, AND A "MID-NIGHT" SNACK.The meals that the ward will be supplying are:

Thur PM (Thurs evening meal will be @7pm. If you are planning on being there sooner to set up camp, etc. and you know your kids won't make it until 7 please feel free to provide them with what they need to eat on your own. We are having the meal at 7 in hopes that everyone can arrive on Thurs night because we have a fun night of activities planned and want everyone to be there to enjoy it together)Mid night snackFri AMNoonSnacks on trailPMMid Night SnackSat AmSnacks on trailNoon (with watermelon)

Dorothy is working hard to get this organized but she is at little disadvantage as we don't have a real good number of participants to give her. She will let us know soon if we will need to bring items like cooking stoves, dutch ovens, etc. The ward will also be supplying the paper products and we can have fires with wood/charcoal provided by the ward as well.

Leadership: Our Bp is going to be our company captain, so everyone welcome to the Nielson Handcart Company.We will also be dividing into "Teams" (they also divided into 100's in each company, kind of like a Stake then a Ward then an organization) We are still waiting for a head count as to how many will be in each team but at present it looks like we will be having 3 teams. And yes, there will be leaders over each of those teams-leaders are still being determined.

As we've stated before, we want you to know a story or history about the name you are trekking for. We want this because along the trail we are going to stop and tell each other these stories. Not everyone will get a chance to tell their story but many of you will. There are also some specific stories that we want told so you might get to do that too. With the stopping comes the fact that, how can 150 people gather in one place and hear a story? Well, we have 2 solutions. We have been in close contact with Uncle Dave and Aunt Kaye (Elder and Sis Freeman). A couple of weeks ago, they came from WY to WA to get some building supplies and a trailer and some "farm stuff" as they are doing construction in WY. Well, they were kind enough to bring us the portable sound system that they use on their treks. So we have a sound system (that runs on batteries) that we will be able to use. We are also sending out the teams 20-30 mins apart. Meaning Team A will leave at 8:30, Team B at 9 and Team C at 9:30 (this is also how the pioneers did it. Everyone couldn't be standing one the banks of a river waiting 2 hours to cross it so they left in sections.) This will also help with the water filling and restroom using stations. We are hoping that we don't do a lot of standing around waiting for our turn to use the restroom but that alot of time is spent trekking.As for you ward members, things that you definitely need to bring:

-A tent for your family (dome tents are best because they are light and easy to set up, but PLEASE don't go buy something) If you don't own a tent, please let us know so that we can find you one-EVERY PERSON TREKKING will be given a 5 gal bucket w/lid to use as "luggage". You will put your personal effects in the bucket w/lid and then as we stop along the trail, you can use your bucket as a seat. It is important that you DO NOT make your bucket weigh more than 15 lbs. If there are 10 people in your handcart and everyone has 15 lb bucket, that is 150 lbs you have to pull around. Please be courteous to everyone on this issue. We will be weighing buckets a few days before the trek. You will RECEIVE your bucket at the MAY 31st FIRESIDE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.-Attached is the PACKING LIST and the FIRST AID KIT LIST {FAK} (every HANDCART needs a first aid kit) Obviously some families are smaller and will be paired with others in our ward, you will just need to have one FAK for each handcart.-GLOVES is a must for everyone planning on pulling the handcart

FOR THOSE WITH YOUTH OR CHILDREN: please encourage your children not to bring I-pods, MP3's, cell phones, games, electronics of any kind. We know of course that the men folk will probably need to have their cell phones but for the most part, we want it to be a tech free experience.I don't believe that the clothing list includes:shorts (longer ones, bloomer length, to be worn UNDER skirts) for the women. You will want these to prevent chaffing.jackets or coatCameras (so that we can use pics taken to comply a video after the trek)Rain Poncho

EACH HANDCART NEEDS:1-5 gal water cooler (that can be filled by the water tank)1-54-60 quart ice chest for snacks and lunch to go inTarp to cover the load in case of rain(other items might be added such as a dutch, as we know the meal schedule we will let you know.The handcarts will have your 5 gal bucket, and the items listed above. All other items like bedding, tents will be moved in a vehicle.SOME OTHER STUFF:-Bedding will be trucked seperate so if you need an airbed, foam mattress, etc, you can bring it. You can even bring an RV, camper, trailer, whatever. Please we just want you to come enjoy the spirit of this great opporunity.-Men, you are more the welcome to grow a beard.-Continue to work on your pioneer clothing. There are many talented seamstresses in our ward who can help you if you need help, please call and let us know so we can get everyone outfitted.-If needed we will place a order for (cheap) straw cowboy hats for your younger boys. PLEASE let us know soon so we can get those order.-We are making a journal for everyone 8 and older. The Church has encouraged us to look to this great generation of people and learn from them. Just like parelleling our lives to scripture stories, there is much we can compare to our pioneer history. We want everyone to have a great experience on this trek and part of that is recognizing the Savior in the whole of this "trekking" opportunities that we get to do now and that our forefathers did.-We are also making a "poke" (A "poke" is a bag that has one strap that goes over the shoulder and across the chest to hold your items in) or sachett for everyone 8 and older to hold their journal, water bottle, repellant, chapstick, snack in.-PLEASE get me your names for whom you are trekking. If you need help, we can help you do that. Again the importance of being connected to these great pioneers will help us understand them so much better.

Well, Ms. Resourcefulness herself, Maria, my good friend told me she found a great sight to get REDBOX FREE every day!! Can you stand it!! Rough getting stuff for FREE! Click here to get a new code everyday! You will have to scroll down a bit and you will see things like "Sign up now" but you don't have to sign up just keep scrolling down until you see REDBOX CODES. Hope it works for everyone. THANK YOU MARCI for teaching me how to do the link thing, makes me look really smart and thanks Maria!! For the great info!!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I got a new calling on Sunday, den mom to the bear pack. That should be fun. I'm not too worried as I have done it before just 10 years ago. Everyone is doing fine. We are having our state assessment tests in the next 2 weeks so Lex and Sum are a little stressed about that but they are doing fine. Sum got 2 more brackets put on her teeth that hadn't come in until now. The bottom row is looking better all the time. We had a fun Easter with a hunt on Sat at UDave (which is where Amy lives now) They invited the ward. Alot of people came and it was fun for the kids. Then we had fun with our Freeman cousins and Nielson cousins that live close. YUMMY food at the Nielson get together that I didn't get to have because of my diet but I've lost 25 pounds so I guess that was ok. Eric is still planting onions, potatoes and he had a frame crack on a tractor. They won't even build the part for the tractor until late JUNE!! Amazing. I don't know if he can be down a tractor that long.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I guess I can't leave my baby for more than 2 mins because this is what happens. In these pictures I'm standing on the deck. Look how far he is away. He also started moving faster when he saw Summer coming to get him. It's going to be a tough summer. I think I should get a pig fence or maybe a dog run with a harness for him to wear.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Sunday, April 5, 2009

That I haven't posted in a while. It's kind of hard to post when there's 3 kids around here all the time needing the PUTER. I can't ever get on it!! Here are some of the things that have been happening.

Brek: Wearing Bode's singlet and showing how much he doesn't like the headgear. Thanks to Gma & pa Nielson and Summer for staying home with Brek on Sat. It was

Bode: last wrestling match. He got pinned and then did better his second match but also

lost. Wrestling is over. Hurray!! The best Bode did this year was 4th place. He's pretty squirrelly so I'm not surprised he doesn't know how to do many moves. Hopefully it will come with age. Thanks to Gma & pa Freeman and Josie and JJ and their mom and dad for coming and cheering for Bode!!

Summer: Is learning to croquet from Gma Nielson. She is making a hotpad!! Good for her. She also just finished her VB season. She got a lot better over the season and can now get her serves over which she couldn't do last year. Sum and Lex were also in a concert a together.

Lexi: now wears one contact (only one eye is bad.) She loves to hang with her fun friends and watch wrestling and TV.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

It's spring break this week so the kids have been at home. I'll give a recap of the last few days.Lex and Sum went with Gma and pa Nielson to Ashley's baptism and to see Jilly and Erin. They got home on Monday. Bode wrestled on Sat and got pinned for the first time. It was pretty hard for him but he did alot better the next time, he didn't win but he did get points and take downs. An improvement. Still don't have a new calling however, I subbed in Primary, Bode's class. It was fun. Mon we just hung out at home and took Bode to wrestling practice. Tues another day of hanging out at home, I also scrapped, and took Bode to wrestling practice. Today, I'm taking Brek to get pics and Lex is babysitting. Bode and Sum are going to Gma Nielson's. That's what we have been up to.

Where are you coming from?

You know you're a REDNECK if/when

*you spend more $ on getting your dog's leg fixed because you ran it over than you do on your house.

*you drive a harrowbed to school instead of riding the bus.

*your husband takes your child to WALMART with a shirt and underwear on, NO PANTS!!

*your prize cow falls through the bottom of the junky trailer you put it in so she could meet the bull next door and breaks it's leg and has to become hamburger while your nice fat steer lives a longer life because you don't need the meat now

*your neck is actually red (from working in the sun)

*you have a wheelline parked over your driveway

Bode-isms-since they happen SOOO often

*6/26/08 You smell like a stunk (should be skunk)

6/23/08 *Milk is all goneMom, I'm empty of milk.

*On shoesThe ties are unshoed.

*New 1st Pres. picture I put upBode-Where's Pres. Hinckland?Me-WhoB-Pres. Hinckland?M-Oh, he's in heaven.B-Yeh but where is his picture?M-Oh, I put it behind the new picture.B-Well, I want the picture of Pres. Hinckland back.

*5/31/08-speaking of the printer running out of ink..."The printer ran out of oil."